Heartwood of Cupressus lusitanica, C. macrocarpa, Leyland and Ovens cypress and prediction of its durability using near-infrared spectroscopy

The heartwood of plantation-grown Cupressus lusitanica, C. macrocarpa, Leyland and Ovens cypress (×Cuprocyparis leylandii and ×C. ovensii) from trials in New Zealand, was evaluated using breast height increment cores and in vitro decay tests with fungal cultures to determine the variation in the heartwood content and natural durability, and its prediction using near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy. The increment core measurements showed the length of the cores was strongly influenced by the stocking and site, but the heartwood content and weight loss with decay testing were strongly influenced by species and genotype. The heartwood content was consistently high for C. macrocarpa, but varied widely for C. lusitanica, and the Leyland and Ovens cypress clones. The weight loss was similar for the species and cypress clones, with the heartwood classified as very durable and durable, but there were differences in the distributions of less durable heartwood. The NIR calibration models of mass loss with fungal decay testing had ratios of prediction to deviation (RPD) of 1.0–1.3, which suggests the models could be used to segregate the heartwood for high and low values of natural durability.     

Inter-Tissue Differences in Fatty Acid Incorporation as a Result of Dietary Oil Manipulation in Port Jackson Sharks (Heterodontus portusjacksoni)

Fatty acid profile analysis is a tool for dietary investigation that may complement traditional stomach contents analysis. While recent studies have shown that the liver of sharks fed different diets have differing fatty acid profiles, the degree to which diet is reflected in shark blood serum and muscle tissue is still poorly understood. An 18-week controlled feeding experiment was undertaken using captive Port Jackson sharks (Heterodontus portusjacksoni). Sharks were fed exclusive diets of artificial pellets treated with fish or poultry oil and sampled every 6 weeks. The fatty acid profiles from liver, blood serum, and muscle were affected differently, with the period from which significant differences were observed varying by tissue and diet type. The total fatty acid profiles of fish oil and poultry oil fed sharks were significantly different from week 12 onwards in the liver and blood serum, but significant differences were only observed by week 18 in the muscle tissue of sharks fed different diets. The drivers of dissimilarity which aligned with dietary input were 14:0, 18:2n-6, 20:5n-3, 18:1n-9 and 22:6n-3 in the liver and blood serum. Dietary fatty acids accumulated more consistently in the liver than in the blood plasma or muscle, likely due to its role as the central organ for fat processing and storage. Blood serum and muscle fatty acid profiles were influenced by diet, but fluctuated over-time. The low level of correlation between diet and muscle FA profiles is likely a result of low levels of fat (<1 %) in the muscle and the domination of structural, cell-membrane phospholipids in shark muscle tissues. Our findings describe inter-tissue differences in the incorporation of fatty acids from the diet to consumer, which should be taken into account when interpreting dietary patterns from fatty acid profiles.     

The role of interface modification on thermal degradation and crystallization behavior of composites from commingled polypropylene fiber and banana fiber

The thermal degradation behavior of banana fiber and polypropylene/banana fiber composites has been studied by thermogravimetric analysis. Banana fiber was found to be decomposing in two stages, first one around 320°C and the second one around 450°C. For chemically treated banana fiber, the decomposition process has been at a higher temperature, indicating thermal stability for the treated fiber. Activation energies for thermal degradation were estimated using Coats and Redfern method. Calorific value of the banana fiber was measured using a constant volume isothermal bomb calorimeter. Crystallization studies exhibited an increase in the crystallization temperature and crystallinity of polypropylene upon the addition of banana fiber. POLYM. COMPOS., 2010. © 2009 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Severn Barrage tidal power project: implications for carbon emissions

UK Government encouragement of the Severn Barrage project has regard for the fact that this is by far the largest single source of renewable energy available to the United Kingdom. A major concern for all forms of electricity generation is their effects of carbon emissions and, as a result which is now generally recognised, on global warming. The present paper makes use of published sources of carbon emissions data to estimate the carbon content of each of the operations required to produce, transport, construct, operate and decommission this barrage if it is located and designed as set out in 1989. The approach adopted here is based on estimating the ratio of the life-cycle carbon emissions demand of the scheme (gCO₂) relative to its energy output (kW) over an assumed lifetime, this to include expected plant replacements over that period.     

启动新一代移动宽带服务

对有线及无线服务供货商来说．这是一个最好的时代,也是一个最坏的时代。光是在北美,由于其他技术的替代作用,有线通信业者平均每天流失一万个用户。换言之．相当于每季流失100万个、每年流失400万个用户。此外,包含ABI Research在内的各家分析机构均指出,手机市场在未来5年内将持续萎缩。ABI预估,从2007年-2012年．手机市场的营收将以年复合增长率负8％的速度不断衰落,同时也反映出此市场未来的走势。     

Case studies of groundwater flow into tunnels and an innovative water-gathering system for water drainage

Groundwater inflow into tunnels can constitute a potential hazard and also is an important factor influencing the speed of tunnel excavation. In this paper the results of numerical modelling are presented to investigate the groundwater flow and the distribution of the pore pressure around tunnels. Two types of tunnels, double-arch tunnel and twin-tube tunnel, were studied. Potential leakage places are identified for the two types of tunnels. The most permeable place in the double-arch tunnel is at the contact interface between the middle wall and the overlying rock. The results of numerical modelling are compared with field observations in the case studies. Based on the results of numerical modelling and the field investigations, an innovative water-gathering system for reducing water leakage was proposed and applied in some tunnels on ChangJi Expressway in China. The water-gathering system can be quickly glued to the rock surface and easily installed for tunnelling. It can be applied in tunnels where water-bearing fractures are well-developed in the rock mass.     

The implications of linking the dynamic performance and turnover literatures.

This article examines how the literatures of dynamic performance and the performance–turnover relationship inform each other. The nonrandom performance–turnover relationship suggests that dynamic performance studies may be biased by their elimination of participants who do not remain for the entire study period. The authors demonstrated that the performance slopes of those who leave an organization differ from the performance slopes of those who remain. This finding suggests that studies of the performance–turnover relationship need to consider employee performance trends when predicting turnover. Replicating and extending the research of D. A. Harrison, M. Virick, and S. William (1996), the authors found that performance changes from the previous month and performance trends measured over a longer time period explained variance in voluntary turnover beyond current performance. Finally, the authors showed that performance trends interacted with current performance in the prediction of voluntary turnover. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mesh composition on models with arbitrary boundary topology

This paper presents a new approach for the mesh composition on models with arbitrary boundary topology. After cutting the needed parts from existing mesh models and putting them into the right pose, an implicit surface is adopted to smoothly interpolate the boundaries of models under composition. An interface is developed to control the shape of the implicit transient surface by using sketches to specify the expected silhouettes. After that, a localized Marching Cubes algorithm is investigated to tessellate the implicit transient surface so that the mesh surface of composed model is generated. Different from existing approaches in which the models under composition are required to have pairwise merging boundaries, the framework developed based on our techniques have the new function to fuse models with arbitrary boundary topology.